Playing music from external hard drive, iTunes

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Playing music from external hard drive, iTunes

Hello all,

After years of wanting to own a MacBook Pro, I finally have one. This is the first Mac computer that I have owned so I am still new to everything. One issue that I am having is an issue that I have had over the years on Windows, that always took me hours to get straight. I am going to explain how my iTunes has been setup on all of my previous computers so that hopefully you guys can make sense of what I am trying to accomplish as I could not find a solution on here.

The way iTunes is set up on my Windows PC's was that all of my music was on my external hard drive. Whenever I would want to use my music through iTunes, I would have to plug in my external hard drive and once it boots I can now play music. Without the hard drive plugged in I can only see all the information about my music on iTunes but I cannot play it since the hard drive is disconnected. I am trying to do this same setup with my macbook but I am having difficulty accomplishing that. I honestly do not remember how I did it on my Windows PC other than it took forever. I kept getting duplicates but after trying multiple times, I got it to where there were no duplicates and everything was fine.

What steps do I go about in order to be able to see all my music information on iTunes but having the actual music file on my external? I like it this way as it saves my internal hard drive storage and I don't mind having to plug in my external when needed. I have only attempted once so far to do this procedure on my new MacBook, I failed. It transferred all of the music and worked just how I wanted it to work. However, it created a duplicate of every song, which there is thousands of, so I deleted everything and now iTunes doesn't have anything. Any help is appreciated, sorry for the long post.

Itunes-OTHER, Windows 7

Posted on Jul 25, 2014 6:24 PM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

Level 10

411,091 points

Jul 25, 2014 7:59 PM in response to jgj0ker

The information iTunes has about your media is in the iTunes folder. Since you kept only music on the external the iTunes folder is on the internal drive of your old computer. Copy it to a desired location on the new computer. If there's nothing in your Music > iTunes folder now on the new computer copy it over than one, otherwise find someplace else. If you keep it in a different place other than Music you will need to start iTunes while holding down the option/alt key and guide it to the location of that folder and the iTunes Library.itl file inside.

Now comes the bad news. Windows and Mac drives have different formats. Windows uses NTFS which Macs can only read, not write. You'll be able to play your files but if you try editing the information you will likely get error messages. You can look into buying special software which allows you to read NTFS but if you're just going to be using Mac now you will want to reformat the external drive for Mac use. This is done with Disk Utility but will erase all content on the drive so you need to store your media somewhere else safe while you do this. You should already have a second backup drive for this anyway.

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Answer 2

jgj0ker Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 26, 2014 4:28 AM in response to Limnos

Very well. I will look into the location of the iTunes folder in my old PC when I get home today.

I know my external hard drive supports both Mac and Windows formats but I do believe it was formatted in NTFS when I first received it and never reformatted as I didn't own a Mac at the time. Again, I will look into this when I get home after work. If I am unable to edit without reformat, then I honestly might just hold off on this entire process as I am likely going to purchase an external drive specifically for Mac. I love my music but it does need to be cleaned up and this is not necessarily a pressing issue as I have lately been using streaming music services. It is more me having slight OCD and wanting everything how I had it before.

I will let you know if your information works for me. Thanks.

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,091 points

Jul 26, 2014 7:35 AM in response to jgj0ker

It is possible it was formatted FAT which both Macs and Windows can use, but it has limitations. Flash drives are normally formatted FAT but I haven't seen any recent hard drives (last 15 years) arrive with FAT formatting.

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Answer 4

jgj0ker Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 27, 2014 9:25 AM in response to Limnos

So after messing around for awhile I finally figured it out and got everything working how I want it and had it on my Windows machine. It took me forever to find the iTunes library file as it was not in its default location on my Windows machine. I finally figured out what needs to be done and it is really easy like you explained. I discovered that my issue is: 1. The default location of these common iTunes files is not in its default location likely due to me moving it the last time I did this from my prior Windows machine and 2. My external hard drive needs to be cleaned up, at least my music section.

What I am going to do in the future is purchase a new external hard drive specifically for my Mac backups and music. I will have to take a day and transfer my huge library to the new drive so that I ensure everything is organized and kept clean and not make this process more difficult than it should in the future. I am however missing some of my tracks (noted with the !) I do believe that this is due to me accidentally changing the file paths on my external at some point in the past and left certain files on my Windows internal drive. This issue is solved though, hopefully. I appreciate your help.

BTW: I am loving my 15" rMBP, I wish the price didn't hold me back as long as it did.

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